Further Reading

Taking a page out of Amazon’s playbook, the venerable electronics retailer launched its “Newegg Premier” program on Tuesday. For $50 per year, subscribers will get “free expedited shipping” of three days or less, early-access to sales, free and no-fee returns, and a “dedicated customer service telephone number” (all similar benefits to Amazon Prime). But unlike its competitor, Newegg Premier won’t give you access to Alpha House (sorry, John Goodman) or any of the company's other online media.

"We always seek ways to improve the customer experience, and implementing a benefit program is the latest example of how we're making it easier and more rewarding to shop at Newegg.com," said Soren Mills, chief marketing officer of Newegg North America, in a statement. "Free expedited shipping is in itself a great benefit, but beyond that we're including many other perks to enhance the shopping experience."

Newegg's announcement comes one week after reports of Amazon considering a possible price increase of $20 to $40 per year for its Prime service due to high shipping costs. Originally, Prime began as a service that offered free two-day shipping on many items for a flat, $79-a-year fee. But as Amazon has grown, add-ons like the Instant Video service and Kindle Owners' Lending Library have been rolled into the service. The price increase would be Prime's first since debuting in 2005.